


E F P T O Z L E P D P E C F D (or: A Study In Perception)

by Duck_Life



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Driving, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Glasses, Humor, Post-Canon, Step-parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 20:11:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14576733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: During a driving lesson, Shawn realizes Maya needs glasses.





	E F P T O Z L E P D P E C F D (or: A Study In Perception)

“Brake. Brake. BRAKE.”

“Sorry!” Maya squeaked as the brakes squealed. 

“Jesus, Maya.”

“I said I was sorry,” she huffed, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. “The stop sign came up faster than I expected.”

“Yeah, they’re squirrelly like that,” Shawn sighed, glancing over at her. She looked pretty freaked. He felt bad for snapping. “S’okay, that’s what seatbelts are for. And, y’know, maybe I’ll wear a helmet next time.”

“Ha ha.” Cautiously, cautiously, she hit the gas again and started inching forward along the road. “I don’t know what I need a license for anyway. I can just walk everywhere or take the subway.”

“You’ll appreciate the ability to drive when you’re older,” Shawn promised her. “One day you’re gonna get so pissed off at me and your mom, you’re just gonna wanna take the car and vamoose. And you’ll come back, sure, but… you’ll be glad you can go.” 

“If you say so.” Maya increased her speed and got them cruising for a ways, her motions still just as jerky and anxious. For the most part, Shawn was quiet and patient— until Maya completely ignored a “merge left” sign and got them almost trapped on the shoulder. 

“Signal and get over,” he said. “ _ Now _ .” Maya jerked the wheel to the left and took them into the other lane. “Did you not see the sign?”

“What sign?”

“There were like three signs telling you to get over.” 

“Why didn’t  _ you _ tell me to get over?” Maya demanded.

“Because I’m not always gonna be here, alright?” Shawn said. “Part of learning to drive is learning to keep your eyes peeled and read the road signs around you.”

Maya’s shoulders slumped. “But I can’t even see those signs.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I can’t see them!” she said. “I see little yellow squares but I can’t see what they say.”

Shawn sighed again and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, frustrated and caught in unfamiliar territory. He always thought raising a kid would be difficult, but doable. But he never counted on having to start so late in the game, without those fourteen, fifteen years of experience. Never thought he’d go from being childless to raising a teenager. 

He’s started to really appreciate how tough Jon Turner must’ve had it. 

“Pull over.”

“What?”

“You heard me, pull over.” 

Maya signalled and took the car off onto the shoulder. “What?” 

Shawn pointed at the green sign up ahead of them. “What does that say?”

Maya squinted at it through the windshield before shrugging. “I dunno.” 

“You don’t know?”

“It’s blurry!” she admitted, throwing her hands up in irritation. “It looks like it might start with an A, but I don’t know. I can’t read it.”

“Maya, you need glasses.”

“No I don’t,” she said adamantly, her chin jutting up. “I don’t need glasses. I never needed glasses before.” 

Shawn turned sideways in the passenger’s seat so he could stare at her. “You can’t read any of these road signs. You need glasses.”

“No I don’t,” she said again. 

He cocked his head to the side, considering her. Thinking. “You get bored in Cory’s class, right?”

Maya bobbed her head up and down. “Duh.”

“Probably want to nod off sometimes, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Interesting,” Shawn said. “So how come you sit in the front row?” Maya blinked. “When Cory and I were in school, I always sat in the back. Always always always. See, ’cause I didn’t want Feeny to call on me and I wanted to be able to goof off without getting caught. And because you’re basically a mini me, I don’t understand why you’d want to sit in the front of the class.” 

Maya glared at him for almost a full minute before mumbling, “If I sit in the back I can’t see the board.” 

“Interesting!” Shawn coughed.

“Shut up,” Maya said. 

Her stepdad just rolled his eyes and stepped out of the car, holding the passenger’s side door open. “C’mon, switch seats. I’m taking you to the optometrist.”

“No,” Maya said flatly. “I’m not going.”

“Maya, you’re sixteen, stop acting like you’re six,” Shawn said. “Come on. We’re going to the optometrist, we’re getting you some glasses. Maybe even contacts if you want.” 

“No.”

“I’m not asking.” 

“No, Shawn, I’m perfectly fine with blurry, okay? Blurry is good. Blurry is  _ great.  _ Glasses are like— that’s like $200 at least,” Maya sputtered. “I can’t afford that. You know I can’t afford that.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that your parents can.” 

Maya glared at him again, her eyes like steel. “You mean  _ you _ can.” Obviously Katy had never been able to take her to an eye doctor. She wasn’t about to let Shawn swoop in, Super Shawn, Super Stepdad here to her rescue. That wasn’t him. And that wasn’t what she wanted from him. 

Shawn reached up like he was going to brush hair out of his eyes— hair that hadn’t been there for over fifteen years. “Just get out of the driver’s seat, Maya.”

“No.”

“C’mon,” he said. “I’m not gonna get in a car with someone who can barely see the road.”

“Fine.” She revved the engine and she took off. 

Shawn’s yelling was drowned out by the sound of passing engines. He saw Maya reach across the console and slam the passenger’s side door shut before she took the next turn and disappeared. 

Cory’s phone only rang once before Shawn heard him pick up. “Maya stranded you on the side of the road,” Cory said, bypassing any hellos. 

Shawn swiveled around like there might be a hidden camera somewhere. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“It’s what you would’ve done,” Cory said, sounding amused. But Shawn could hear him moving around, grabbing his coat and keys. “Where are you?”

Shawn rattled off the intersection and mile marker. Then he played the license plate game by himself until Cory finally showed up. 

Shawn rolled his eyes as he watched Cory roll down the window. “Need a ride, babe?”

“Took ya long enough,” Shawn said, sliding into the passenger’s seat. He immediately made a face at the music and pressed the eject button on Cory’s car’s CD player. “One Direction?”

“It’s Riley’s,” Cory said… too fast. Too suspiciously. 

“Uh-huh,” Shawn said, grinning. “That concert t-shirt in your closet is Riley’s too, right?”

“Watch it, Hunter. I’ll throw you out on the side of the road just like Maya did.” 

They drive about a mile, both Cory and Shawn keeping their eyes peeled. “Where do you think she took off to?” Shawn said. 

“Well, where would you go?” 

“Nuh-uh, no, we’re not playing this game,” Shawn said, tilting his head against the car window. “We’re not playing the whole ‘they’re us and we’re them’ game, because it’s just annoying and it’s not even accurate. I’m my own person and Maya’s her own person. Same with you and Riles.”

“Right, right, I’m hearing you,” Cory said, continuing to drive. “But just for fun, you know, just to humor me, if you had taken off like Maya did, what’s the first thing you would do?”

Shawn turned to look at his best friend. “Well, obviously, I’d call yo—” He scowled. “Call Riley.”

Cory smirked and hit the button for his car’s Bluetooth. “Call Riley!”

Riley picked up after two rings, said, “Maya’s at Barnes & Noble,” and then hung up. 

Cory got on the exit to go to the bookstore while Shawn stewed silently beside him. Finally he said, “You know this makes you the Feeny.”

“I’ve made my peace with that,” Cory said. “... Turner.” 

Sure enough, they found Shawn’s car parked outside Barnes & Noble. It was actually a decent parking job— Cory made sure to point that out to Shawn. 

“Yeah, that’s great,” Shawn said sarcastically. “After she runs three red lights because she can’t freakin’ see, at least she’ll be able to park without pissing anyone off.” 

“It’ll be okay, Shawnie,” Cory said, parking carefully and getting out of the car. “She’s in there right now, probably cooling off. We can go present a united front, you know?”

“She could’ve gotten pulled over, could’ve gotten arrested for driving without a license, without supervision,” Shawn rattled off. “How are you so calm?”

Cory grinned. “I’ve just been doing this longer.” 

They found Maya hunched over at a table in the Barnes & Noble Starbucks, poring over a coffee table book about nude sculptures in Europe. Cory put his plan into action. 

Well. “Plan” was a strong word. It was more of a skit. And Shawn, for the record, was totally against it. 

“Gee Cor,” Shawn said, speaking loudly in front of Maya’s table, “I really wish I could read this book…” He glanced at the cover of the book he’d grabbed off a shelf. “‘Leah On The Offbeat,’ but the words are all fuzzy.”

“Here you go, Shawnie,” Cory said, over-enunciating every word. “Try my reading glasses.” 

Shawn begrudgingly took Cory’s outdated spectacles and crammed them on his face. “Wow! That’s so much better!” 

Maya didn’t even look up from her book. “How long did you two dorks rehearse that?”

“We worked on it over in the music section,” Cory said, unabashed. “And I bought the Hamilton soundtrack!”

Shawn handed Cory back his glasses and sat down in the chair across from Maya. “Look,” he said. “When I told you you’d be able to take off on your own… I didn’t mean right that second.”

Maya chewed her lip, still not looking up from her book. “I’m sorry I ditched you.”

“I forgive you,” Shawn said, trying to get her to look him in the eye. “I just hope you know you could’ve gotten in serious trouble. With the police, you understand? Just because you have your learner’s permit doesn’t mean you can drive by yourself. You can’t just go off driving without a license.”

“You did it when you were my age.”

“You’re not me,” Shawn said. 

Maya finally looked up at him. “Yeah,” she said, putting a lot of weight behind the word. “I’m not you. I’m not your do-over either.”

Shawn looked surprised. “What?”

“Look, you— you grew up without money and now you have some and you’re trying to, like, make up for your childhood by being nice to me. But you can’t.” Maya shut her book a little too forcefully. “So stop trying. Because you’re just gonna do all this nice stuff for me and then it’s not going to change anything about how you grew up, because it can’t. And then you’re gonna be mad at me.”

For a long moment, Shawn just sat and processed that. “You really thought this out, huh?”

Maya shrugged one shoulder. “I gotta distract myself with  _ something _ when this one’s yammering on in class,” she said, jerking a thumb toward Cory, who was pretending to be engrossed in a Judy Blume book he’d snatched off a bookshelf. Pretending he wasn’t listening intently to the whole conversation. 

“Maya,” Shawn said carefully, leveling his gaze at her, “I want you to be able to see.”

“I can see fine,” she said defiantly.

Shawn turned and pointed at the menu behind the Starbucks counter. “Read me the second line.”

“Don’t have to. Don’t drink coffee,” Maya said. 

“Okay, then how about this,” Shawn said, grinding his teeth as he tried to figure out how to navigate this. “I’m commissioning you. I want you to do a series of sketches.”

“I don’t do commissions.”

“You’re gonna do this one,” Shawn said. “I want you to draw how you see things without glasses. And then how you see things with glasses. It’ll be a study in perception, how about that? It’ll look great. I’ll hang it up. I’ll love it.”

“And the payment for this commission is…?”

“The cost of an eye exam and a pair of glasses,” Shawn said, folding his hands in front of him. “We got a deal?” Maya eyed him carefully. “You’re not me, Maya,” Shawn added. “I know that. I promise, I know that.” He grinned. “Because if you were me, you’d have 20/20 vision.” 

“Now you’re bragging because your vision is better?” Maya said, but she’d cracked a smile. 

“Sure am,” Shawn said, looking over the top of her head. “That sign over there? ‘Sci-fi Fantasy.’ And over there? ‘New from Stephen King.’ I can read every sign in this store. Ha.” 

“Okay!” Maya said finally, throwing her hands up in mock defeat. “You win. I’ll get glasses.” 

“Yay!” Cory said, leaning over the two of them. He shoved his reading glasses back on. “Maya, you could get the same frames as me and then we’d be like glasses twins.” 

“No,” Shawn said, putting a protective arm around Maya, who was laughing as she looked between her teacher and her stepdad. “Just no.” 

  
  



End file.
